The Barber Centre

The Barber Centre, formally known as the Irving K. Barber British Columbia Centre, is a lecture and event venue at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. It occupies the first floor of the Brown Family House of Learning and is also identified by TRU as the British Columbia Centre theatre in-the-round, room HL190.

Designed to encourage conversation and shared participation, the circular theatre seats up to 300 people and is used for lectures, presentations, meetings, symposia, conferences and cultural events. The venue includes presentation space, surround sound, multiple projection screens and other audiovisual equipment suited to both academic and community gatherings.

Its design draws inspiration from an Interior Salish pit house, reflecting the university’s connections to Indigenous learning and storytelling. The building incorporates locally produced pine-beetle timber, while the adjoining Brown Family House of Learning provides a broader campus setting with library, learning and student-service spaces.